Phenolic 4-hydroxy and 3,5-dihydroxy derivatives of 3-phenoxyquinoxalin-2(1H)-one as potent aldose reductase inhibitors with antioxidant activity

Abstract A group of novel quinoxalinone derivatives (4a-h) were prepared and investigated for their inhibitory activity against ALR2 and antioxidant activity. Most of them were found to be potent aldose reductase inhibitors with IC₅₀ values ranging from 0.019 to 0.982 μM. The most active compound 2-(3-(4-hydroxyphenoxy)-6-fluoro-2-oxoquinoxalin-1(2H)-yl)acetic acid (4c) also had an excellent selectivity. In addition, a number of compounds showed strong antioxidant activity and the phenolic 3,5-dihydroxyl compound 4f with 7-chloro in the quinoxalinone core was most active in scavenging the DPPH radical and suppressing lipid peroxidation.